Tuesday, July 3, 2012

We come back this Monday to continue our journey through Katro's Proibido Ouvir Isto, with two fresh tracks off the burner. And what tracks we have here. I consider Na Fila do Banco as the strongest track on this album. The concept and the rhythmic flow are original very well done - Katro plays three different characters all waiting in line at the bank, each with a story to tell. Like many of MCK's songs, it's a social commentary that touches on rampant corruption, racism, discrimination, and white-collar crime. The characters are varied - there's Katro himself, noticing how the bank employees are all light-skinned and the only dark-skinned workers are the guard and the cleaning lady; there's the bank manager, who slept her way to the top and uses sex as barter; and there's a rich bank client who in cohorts with the government and got his money thru drug trafficking.

Circuíto Fechado is more of the standard self-aggrandizing rap song, in which MCK extols the strengths of his rap and his movement, with the usual disses and bravado - like I said, standard rap fare. Nonetheless it's one of my favorite songs on the album. The disses are welcome and on point. The delivery is stellar as always. And the featured artists are able to hold their own.

You know I wouldn't let you off easily with just two tracks. This third one is an independent single that Katro just put out earlier this month, called Eu Queria Morar Em Talatona. "I want to live in Talatona", he says on the track's chorus. Talatona is the chic, walled condominium neighborhood where Luanda's elite live. It's a humorous take on the enormous income disparity strikingly visible in Luanda. The song is a homage to Brazilian rapper Gabriel O Pensador's iconic rap, Resto do Mundo. You can hear it here.

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“Without music, life would be an error.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Caipirinha Lounge is all about music in Portuguese or by Lusophone artists. It's born out of a sincere belief that Lusophone music should reach a much larger audience. The lounge features music from Brazil, Angola, Portugal, Guine-Bissau, Cabo Verde, São Tomé & Principe, Mozambique, Galicia, and even Timor-Leste. Occasionally, there will be posts about singers so good that the fact that they do not sing in Portuguese is momentarily overlooked.

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